NATE SMITH

                                                               "Raised Up" 

                                                               Sony Music Nashville

Nate Smith is no stranger to the country music community. The California native, who has since relocated to Nashville, has given us buzzworthy songs such as “Wildfire,” “Sleeve,” and “Under My Skin,” the latter which has earned over 40-million streams and counting.

Now signed by Sony Music Nashville, Nate Smith is ready to make his first splash as a major label artist with “Raised Up.”

When releasing songs independently, Smith became known for his strong vocals and outstanding lyrics that tugged on our heart strings. By being backed with softer, piano laced instrumentation throughout the verses, “Raised Up” perfectly allows both these attributes to be the first feel of his major label debut, which will instantly help define him to new listeners.

Lyrically, “Raised Up” focuses on finding your way back to your roots when life gets complicated.

He reveals that no matter how far away he’s gone from home, what he learned while he was there has stuck with him like mud on the bottom of boots, and it’s now where he runs back to (metaphorically) whenever “the voices in my head stop sounding like my own.”

The punch of the powerful chorus then takes us into his thoughts of home and elevates the song with stark descriptions of what that looks like; a familiar place to many of us as it masterfully focuses more on the morals and values learned there rather than on the actual place itself. 

“Where Jesus saves and roads ain’t paved.”

“Got it all when you ain’t got much.”

“That penny saved is a penny earned.”

“Love’s a choice even when it hurts.”

The second verse hits us with the hard truth about how caught up we get with all the noise surrounding us and forget who we are from time to time, but craftily does so in a way that makes you feel like Smith understands completely and is giving us the shoulder that we need to lean on like an old friend does when we’re going through our own tough times.

“Raised Up” does a lot of things right! It introduces Nate Smith to a much wider audience while never losing his signatures, gives us very memorable lyrics with reminders of necessary morals wrapped into them, and most importantly for a newly signed artist, it makes us want to hear more!

(Review Written By: Jeffrey Kurtis)

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